This article was downloaded by: [faculties of the University of Ljubljana]

On: 16 June 2015, At: 05:58

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Journalism Studies
Publication details, including instructions for authors and
subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjos20

ONLINE JOURNALISM AND THE

PROMISES OF NEW TECHNOLOGY
Steen Steensen
Published online: 04 Sep 2010.

To cite this article: Steen Steensen (2011) ONLINE JOURNALISM AND THE PROMISES OF NEW
TECHNOLOGY, Journalism Studies, 12:3, 311-327, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2010.501151

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2010.501151

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the
“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,
our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to
the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions
and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,
and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content
should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources
of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,
proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever
or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or
arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any
substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,
systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-
and-conditions
 ONLINE JOURNALISM AND THE PROMISES
OF NEW TECHNOLOGY
A critical review and look ahead

Steen Steensen

Research about online journalism has been dominated by a discourse of technological innovation.
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

The ‘‘success’’ of online journalism is often measured by the extent to which it utilizes
technological assets like interactivity, multimedia and hypertext. This paper critically examines
the technologically oriented research about online journalism in the second decade of its
existence. The aim is twofold. First, to investigate to what degree online journalism, as it is
portrayed in empirical research, utilizes new technology more than previously. Second, the paper
points to the limitations of technologically oriented research and suggests alternative research
approaches that might be more effective in explaining why online journalism develops as it does.

KEYWORDS hypertext; interactivity; Internet technology; multimedia; online journalism

Introduction
Whenever new technology emerges which is expected to play a major role in the
evolution of media, researchers, scholars, business executives and practitioners alike all
participate in a game of prophesying revolution. Mosco (2004) argues that the entry of
such new technologies has always been surrounded by myths about their revolutionary
powers. The telephone, radio, television and the computer have all been surrounded by
mythical pronouncements on how they might prompt ‘‘the end of history, the end of
geography and the end of politics’’ (2004, p. 13). Needless to say, these technological
inventions did change the world dramatically, but not in such a quick and radical fashion
as the fortune-tellers seemed to believe.
Similar myths dominated the introduction of the Internet, and the research into
online journalism was not left untouched. The 1990s saw several publications predicting
for instance ‘‘the end of journalism’’ (Bromley, 1997; Hardt, 1996) due to the implementa-
tion of digital technology, while others, like Pavlik (2001), were profoundly optimistic on
behalf of the future of journalism in new media. According to Boczkowski (2004) and
Domingo (2006), these first online journalism analysts were driven by technological
determinism. Domingo argues that research about online journalism in the first decade of
its existence was partly paralyzed by what he labels ‘‘utopias of online journalism’’ (2006,
p. 54). These utopias were especially related to how hypertext, multimedia and
interactivity would foster innovative approaches that would revolutionize journalism.
Domingo labels these normative investigations the first wave of online journalism
research. He then argues that the subsequent research about online journalism falls
into two new waves: a descriptive and empirical wave of research focusing on the degree
to which the wonders of the new technology described by the first-wave researchers
Journalism Studies, Vol. 12, No 3, 2011, 311
327
ISSN 1461-670X print/1469-9699 online
– 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2010.501151
 312 STEEN STEENSEN

actually materialized; and a wave of research that takes a constructivist rather than a
technological determinist approach to researching online journalism.
However, this third wave of online journalism research is still just a modest ripple
compared to the ‘‘tsunami wave’’ of research embarking on a technological approach that
has continued to flood the literature on online journalism. Moreover, many of the studies
labelled by Domingo as constructivist research are dominated by an initial desire to
investigate the impacts of technology on online journalism. In this paper I critically assess
the contributions of this ‘‘techno-approach’’ to research on online journalism. The aim is
twofold; first, to review this body of empirical research in order to find out whether online
journalism is more technologically innovative today than at the turn of the millennium.
Second, to point to the limitations of such a technological approach to the research about
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

online journalism. What exactly can such an approach tell us about the reality of online
journalism? What other approaches might be considered?
I have chosen to limit the review to studies conducted in the United States and Europe
that are published in either acclaimed peer-reviewed academic journals or presented at
peer-reviewed academic conferences. Some reports and books are also included. These
studies were found through searches in Google Scholar and to some extent limited to the
access provided by my academic institution. From the references of this first body of studies,
additional studies were found, which in turn became the source of a few additional studies.
Studies published/presented prior to 2000 have not been included unless they provide some
relevance as context for more recent studies.

The Assets of New Technology

The techno-approach to research on online journalism has been dominated by
investigations of the three assets of new technology that are generally considered to have
the greatest potential impact on online journalism: hypertext, interactivity and multimedia
(Dahlgren, 1996; Deuze, 2003, 2004; Deuze and Paulussen, 2002; Domingo, 2006; Paulussen,
2004; among others). The general assumption of the ‘‘techno-researchers’’ has been that an
innovative approach to online journalism implies utilizing these assets of new technology.
Exploring the innovative possibilities of these assets hence became the goal of the techno-
approach to research on online journalism.
Several researchers have made attempts to widen the list of technological assets for
online journalism. Dahlgren (1996) added archival and figurational, Harper (1998), Lasica
(2002) and others spoke of personalization in some way or other, inspired by the (in the
second half of the 1990s) much hyped concept of ‘‘the Daily Me’’, introduced by
Negroponte (1995). Pavlik (2001) added contextualization and ubiquity, and in recent years
much attention has been given to the asset of immediacy (see for instance Domingo,
2006). Zamith (2008) extended the list to a compilation of seven assets: interactivity,
hypertextuality, multimediality, immediacy, ubiquity, memory and personalization. In
addition, the literature on technology and online journalism is flooded by a sea of different
concepts that describe similar or even the same phenomenon or asset*concepts like
convergence, transparency, hypermedia, user-generated content, participatory journa-
lism, citizen journalism, wiki-journalism and crowdsourcing.
However, most of these (additional) assets can be treated as concretizations of
interactivity, hypertext and multimedia depending of course on how these three concepts
are defined. I will base the following review on rather broad definitions of these three
 ONLINE JOURNALISM 313

TABLE 1
Assets of new technology on online journalism in reliance to hypertext, interactivity and
multimedia

Hypertext Interactivity Multimedia

Archival Figurational Convergence
Contextualization Immediacy Hypermedia
Ubiquity User-generated content
Transparency Participatory journalism
Memory Citizen journalism
Personalization
Wikijournalism
Crowdsourcing
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

concepts. The definitions will be offered in the introductions of each of the following
sections. In Table 1 I lay out the different concepts that flood the literature to make visible
how I understand their reliance to hypertext, interactivity and multimedia.
It must, however, be noted that techno-approach research lacks commonly
accepted definitions of hypertext, interactivity and multimedia. This creates some
confusion as to what these characteristics represent and how they differ from one
another. What some label ‘‘interactivity’’, others label ‘‘hypertext’’. In fact, both hypertext
and multimedia can be characterized (and are often characterized) as ‘‘interactivity’’.

Hypertext
Hypertext is generally understood as a computer-based non-linear group of texts (i.e.
written text, images etc.) that are linked together with hyperlinks. The term was first coined
by Nelson (1965), who described it rather roughly as ‘‘a series of text chunks connected by
links which offer the reader different pathways’’ (cited in Tsay, 2009, p. 451). Most scholars
researching hypertext in online journalism rely on what Aarseth labels a ‘‘computer industrial
rhetoric’’ (1997, p. 59), i.e. an understanding of hypertext as a technological function (made
visible by the electronic link) rather than an observable practice of interaction between text
and reader. Researchers interested in hypertext as a text-reader practice are more likely to
coin the object of study a practice of interactivity rather than a practice of hypertext.
The general assumption of researchers interested in hypertextual online journalism
is that if hypertext is used innovatively it would provide a range of advantages over print
journalism: no limitations of space, the possibility to offer a variety of perspectives, no
finite deadline, direct access to sources, personalized paths of news perception and
reading, contextualization of breaking news, and simultaneous targeting of different
groups of readers*those only interest in the headlines and those interested in the deeper
layers of information and sources (Dahlgren, 1996; Deuze, 1999; Engebretsen, 2000,
2001; Fredin, 1997; Gunter, 2003; Huesca, 2000; Jankowski and van Selm, 2000; Kawamoto,
2003; among others).

Content Analysis
Empirical research on the presence and relevance of hypertext in online journalism
tends to rely on the methodology of quantitative content analysis to statistically count the
amount of links present in online news sites. The findings are generally (but with many
 314 STEEN STEENSEN

variations) categorized according to the three different types of hypertext identified by

Shipley and Fish (1996): target links (links within documents), relative links (links to other
pages within a site), and external links (links from one site to another site) (cited in Wood and
Smith, 2005). Most of the content analysis studies of hyperlinks in online journalism
are snapshots of a situation at specific moments in time. A few of them are larger, cross-
country studies, like Kenny et al. (2000), who investigated 100 online newspapers (62 from
the United States and 38 from ‘‘other countries’’) at the end of the millennium and found
that 33 percent of them offered links within news stories (target links) and only 52 percent of
them offered some kinds of hyperlinks. Jankowski and van Selm (2000) investigated 13
online news sites in the United States, The Netherlands and Canada and found similar
results. A few years later, van der Wurff and Lauf presented studies of 72 European online
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

newspapers and found that hyperlinks was the least developed ‘‘internet feature’’ (2005,
p. 37). In their research on the front-pages of 26 leading online newspapers in 17 countries
worldwide in 2003, Dimitrova and Neznanski (2006) found that use of hyperlinks had
become ‘‘an established feature of online news’’, but that the majority of the links was
relative links (within-site links, mostly to archived material). Compared to these studies,
Quandt (2008) found in a study of 10 online news sites in the United States, France,
Germany, the United Kingdom and Russia that hyperlinks was used to a somewhat greater
extent: 73 percent of the 1600 full-text articles he analyzed had relative links, 14.3 percent
had target links and 24.7 percent had external links.
Other, more nation-specific studies conclude that hyperlinks/hypertext is not utilized
to its potential in online journalism, especially concerning the use of target links and
external links (in Scandinavia: Engebretsen, 2006; in Slovenia: Oblak, 2005; in Ireland:
O’Sullivan, 2005; in Flanders: Paulussen, 2004; in the United States: Pitts, 2003; in Spain:
Salaverria, 2005).
A common explanation in these studies for the perceived lack of hypertext in the
online news sites investigated is that a majority of the stories published online are little
more than shovel ware, i.e. stories that are originally published in print. Only a few studies
offer more theoretically informed explanations of the findings, and even fewer offer a
longitudinal approach. One study that does both is Tremayne’s (2006) analysis of front
pages of 10 online newspapers in the United States over a period of six years (1999
2004).
He found that the amount of external links decreased during these years, while relative
links increased. He explained this by network theory:

[a]s each organization builds up its own archive of Web content, this material is being
favoured over content that is off-site. This is just one example of preferred attachment,
which is the driving principle of network theory. (Tremayne, 2006, p. 60).

Preferred attachment may be the result of a protectionist strategy aiming at keeping

readers on-site, even though it is not portrayed as such in network theory. Such a strategy
conflicts with the utilization of hypertext technology.

Surveys and Experimental Studies

While content analysis has been the preferred method to investigate hyperlinks/
hypertext in online journalism, other methods have also been utilized. Quinn and Trench
(2002) conducted a survey amongst 138 ‘‘media professionals’’ engaged in online news
production in Denmark, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The respondents agreed
 ONLINE JOURNALISM 315

that providing hyperlinks could make stories more valuable to the readers. However, they
were sceptical as to whether the readers ‘‘should be left to make their own judgment
about the relevance of links, rather than . . . having the news services provide guidance to
users’’ (Quinn and Trench, 2002, p. 35). O’Sullivan (2005) interviewed Irish online journalists
and found that few of them found hyperlinks to be an important feature of online
journalism. On the contrary, they expressed concerns as to whether (external) hyperlinks
would lead readers away from their site. Krumsvik found in his case studies of online news
production at the CNN and the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, that hypertext was to
a little extent utilized*external links were ‘‘ignored’’ (2009, p. 145).
In an experimental study of how readers in the United States evaluate in-text (target)
links in news stories, Eveland et al. (2004) found that only the experienced Web users
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

found such hypertext structured news stories valuable. For in-experienced users, the
hypertext structure was a disadvantage. Sundar (2009) found similar results in his
experimental study. However, users seem to be satisfied with relative links according to a
survey amongst readers of Flemish online newspapers (Beyers, 2005).

Hypertext Summarized
Based on these studies, it seems that relative hyperlinks, i.e. hyperlinks to other
stories within the online news site, is the most common form of hypertext structure found
in online journalism, while target links (links within stories) and external links are used to a
lesser degree. A protectionist attitude might prevent utilization of external links while
utilization of target links may be obstructed by a high degree of shovel ware material and
uncertainty as to whether users actually benefit from such links.

Interactivity
Like hypertext, interactivity is a slippery concept that is used to describe numerous
processes related to communication in general and practices like online journalism in
particular. Based on a review of the ‘‘history’’ of interactivity, Jensen arrives at this
definition: interactivity is ‘‘a measure of a media’s potential ability to let the user exert an
influence on the content and/or form of the mediated communication’’ (1998, p. 201).
Jensen separates interaction from interactivity and his definition is therefore mainly
a technological one. Interaction refers to the social dimension of interactivity, and
McMillan argues for an incorporation of this dimension as well. Accordingly, she has
identified nine different understandings of interactivity along two different axes (McMillan,
2002, 2005) (see Figure 1).
All these kinds of interactivity may be found in an online newspaper. However, the
Human-to-Computer axis (or ‘‘navigational interactivity’’, as Deuze (2001) labels it) is
similar to what, in the previous section, I categorized as hypertext. The research covering
this axis was therefore included there. Out of the then six notions of interactivity that are
left only two seem to have occupied researchers of interactivity in online journalism to a
great extent: human-to-human (both features and processes). This research is dominated
by questions such as the degree to which users are allowed to interact with online
newsrooms/online journalists through emails; the extent to which online news sites offer
discussion forums; and whether users are allowed to comment on stories or in other ways
be involved in the production process.
 316 STEEN STEENSEN
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

FIGURE 1
Six notions of interactivity, according to McMillan (2005). Used with permission

Content Analysis
As with hypertext, the research on interactivity in online journalism is dominated by
content analysis, even though a greater body of this research also relies on surveys and
interviews with journalists. Kenny et al. (2000) concluded that only 10 percent of the online
newspapers in their study offered ‘‘many opportunities for interpersonal communication’’
and noted that little had changed since the introduction of Videotex1 25 years earlier:
‘‘Videotex wanted to push news electronically into people’s homes, and so do today’s
online papers’’. Similar findings and conclusions are found in Pitts’ (2003), Jankowski and
van Selm’s (2000) and Dimitrova and Neznanski’s (2006) studies of news sites in the United
States; in van der Wurff and Lauf’s (2005) investigations of European online newspapers; in
Quandt’s (2008) analysis of news sites in the United States, France, the United Kingdom,
Germany and Russia; in Paulussen’s (2004) investigation of Flemish online newspapers;
Oblak’s (2005) study of Slovenian online news sites; O’Sullivan’s (2005) research on Irish
online newspapers; Fortunati et al.’s (2005) study of online newspapers in Bulgaria, Estonia,
Ireland and Italy; and Spyridou and Veglis’ (2008) study of Greek online newspapers.
Comparisons between these studies are, however, difficult to make, reflecting differences
in both methodological approaches and theoretical understandings of what constitutes
interactivity. However, it might seem that European online newspapers tend to offer
slightly less interactivity than online newspapers in the United States.
In a longitudinal study of 83 online news sites in the United States, Greer and
Mensing (2006) found a slight increase in interactive features from 1997 to 2003. The
possibility of customizing news, however, decreased during the same period. Li and Ye
(2006) found that 39.2 percent of 120 online newspapers in the United States provided
discussion forums*twice as many as in Kenney et al.’s study six years earlier. Hermida and
Thurman found ‘‘substantial growth’’ (2008, p. 346) in user-generated content in 12 British
 ONLINE JOURNALISM 317

online newspapers from 2005 to 2006 (concerning features like comments to stories and
‘‘have your say’’). In an analysis of the level of participatory journalism in 16 online
newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium,
Finland, Slovenia and Croatia, Domingo et al. concluded that interactive options
promoting user participation ‘‘had not been widely adopted’’ (2008, p. 334). However,
their findings suggest a distinct increase in most such interactive options compared to
earlier studies, especially regarding the possibility for users to comment on stories, which
11 of the 16 online newspapers allowed. The process of selecting and filtering news,
however, remains the most closed area of journalistic practice, allowing the authors to
conclude that: ‘‘[t]he core journalistic role of the ‘‘gatekeeper’’ who decides what makes
news remained the monopoly of professionals even in the online newspapers that had
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

taken openness to other stages beyond interpretation’’ (Domingo et al., 2008, p. 335).
Some content analysis studies offer insights into how interactive features such as
discussion forums are used. Fortunati et al. concluded that users ‘‘prefer to remain
anonymous and silent’’ (2005, p. 426). Li and Ye (2006) found similar results, and Thurman
(2008) found that the BBC News website’s comments system ‘‘Have Your Say’’ attracted
contributions from not more than 0.05 percent of the site’s daily users.
Some studies focus on interactivity in so-called j-blogs, e.g. weblogs written by
journalists and published on their online newspapers’ site. Singer (2005) found, in her
research focused on 20 j-blogs in the United States, that the journalists ‘‘are . . . sticking
to their traditional gatekeeper function even with a format that is explicitly about
participatory communication’’ (2005, p. 192). However, two other studies of j-blogs offer
alternative findings. Wall (2005) investigated US j-blogs on the Iraq war in 2003 and found
that these j-blogs emphasized audience participation to a much greater extent than the
online newspapers in general. Robinson (2006) investigated 130 US j-blogs and found
similar results.

Surveys and Interviews

Studies relying on surveys and interviews with journalists contribute with similar
findings as the content analysis studies. Riley’s qualitative interviews with journalists at
a metropolitan US newspaper in the late 1990s offer some interesting insights into the
attitude towards interactivity at the time. According to Riley et al. (1998), most reporters
were ‘‘horrified at the idea that readers would send them e-mail about a story they wrote
and might even expect an answer’’. Heinonen (1999) found similar attitudes in his
interviews with Finnish journalists during the same period. However, this attitude seems to
have changed. Schultz (2000) found a slightly more positive attitude towards interactivity
among journalists at The New York Times, as did Quinn and Trench (2002) in their
interviews with journalists in 24 online news organizations in Denmark, France, Ireland and
the United Kingdom. More recent studies suggest an even broader acceptance of
interactivity among online journalists. In a survey of journalists in 11 European countries
O’Sullivan and Heinonen (2008) found that 60 percent of the respondents agreed that
linking with the audience is an important benefit of online journalism. O’Sullivan’s (2005)
study in Ireland, Paulussen’s (2004) in Flanders, and Quandt et al.’s (2006) study in
Germany and the United States all found similar results.
In a broad-scale study relying on 89 in-depth interviews with editors and journalists
in newspapers and broadcasting stations in 11 European countries, Metykova (2008) found
 318 STEEN STEENSEN

that the relationship between journalists and their audience had indeed become more
interactive, especially regarding email and text message interaction. However, this increase
in interactivity ‘‘tended to be seen as empowering journalists to do their jobs better rather
than blurring the distinction between content producers and content consumers’’
(Metykova, 2008, p. 56).
Chung (2007) in interviews with website producers nominated for the Online
Journalism Award in the United States, and O’Sullivan (2005) found that online journalists,
web producers and editors find it difficult to implement interactive features, even though
they express a willingness to do so. O’Sullivan (2005) offers an interesting perspective: the
use of freelancers may obstruct interactive features because freelancers cannot be
expected to interact with readers to the same degree as the in-house editorial staff.
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

Freelancers are generally not paid to participate in discussions with readers or initiate
other kinds of interactivity.

Reception Studies
Surveys of online newspaper users in Europe found that users lacked interest in
participating on discussion forums and similar features (in Sweden: Bergström, 2008; in
Flanders: Beyers, 2004, 2005; in Finland: Hujanen and Pietikäinen, 2004; in Germany:
Rathmann, 2002). The most important facility of online newspapers according to these
survey studies seems to be that online newspapers are continuously updated. Already in
the mid-1990s Singer (1997) found, in interviews with 27 journalists in the United States,
that those journalists who were positive towards the Internet and new technology
emphasized the importance of immediacy in online journalism. Quandt et al. (2006)
found that the online journalists in Germany and the United States valued immediacy as
the most important feature of online journalism. O’Sullivan found that immediacy was
the ‘‘big thing’’ and that frequent updates was ‘‘the great strength of online media’’
(2005, p. 62).

Interactivity Summarized
To summarize the research on interactivity in online journalism, it seems clear that
online news sites are becoming more and more interactive, first and foremost regarding
human-to-human interactivity. Users are allowed to contribute to the content production
by submitting photos and videos and by commenting on stories and participate in
discussion forums. However, users are seldom allowed to participate in the selecting and
filtering of news. The traditional norm of gatekeeping is thus still very much in place in the
practice of online journalism. As Fortunati et al. concluded: ‘‘the power relation between
media organisations and readers is not in play’’ (2005, p. 428).
Furthermore, the research reveals that online journalists and editors are becoming
more eager to interact with readers, but organizational constraints like time pressure and
the utilization of freelancers prevent them to a certain degree from doing so. Last, but not
least, user studies suggest an overwhelming indifference to interactivity*it seems that
people prefer to be passive consumers, not active producers.
However, it seems that the picture might be slightly different when online
newspapers report on major breaking news events, like natural disasters and other types
of crises events. Several studies in recent years that focus on citizen journalism, like for
 ONLINE JOURNALISM 319

instance Allan and Thorsen’s compilation of case studies from around the world (2009),
have demonstrated a boost in user participation and interactivity in the coverage of such
events. In other words, it may seem that when crises strike, gatekeeping is to a certain
degree abandoned.

Multimedia
Deuze (2004, p. 140) argues that the concept of multimedia in online journalism
studies is generally understood in either of two ways: (1) as a presentation of a news story
package where two or more media formats are utilized (e.g. text, audio, video, graphics
etc.), or (2) as a distribution of a news story packaged through different media (e.g.
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

newspaper, website, radio, television etc.). Most research on multimedia in online

journalism deals with the first understanding. When in the following I use the term
multimedia, I will refer to such an understanding, albeit in a slightly more pragmatic sense
that better fits the empirical research on multimedia in online journalism. Since an online
news story with text and a photo is generally not considered to be multimedia, I will have
the term refer to stories and websites where more than two media are utilized. I will also
let the term include not only the presentation of news, but also the production of news.

Content Analysis
As with hypertext and interactivity, most studies of multimedia in online journalism
rely on content analysis of websites. Schultz (1999) found that only 16 percent of online
newspapers in the United States had multimedia applications in the late 1990s. Two more
qualitative-oriented content analysis studies revealed a similar lack of multimedia (in the
United States, Canada and the Netherlands: Jankowski and van Selm, 2000); in the United
States: Dibean and Garrison, 2001). Jankowski and van Selm concluded that of all
supposed added-value facilities of online journalism multimedia ‘‘is perhaps the most
underdeveloped’’ (2000, p. 7). However, online news sites affiliated with TV stations were
more prone to utilize multimedia according to the same study. Yet, in a more extensive
investigation of TV broadcasters’ online news sites in the United States, Pitts lamented:
‘‘[t]he majority of stations provide text-only stories, thus failing to use the multimedia
capabilities of the web’’ (2003, p. 5). In their extensive investigation of European online
journalism, van der Wurff and Lauf (2005) found that print newspapers were as much
about multimedia as online newspapers. Quandt (2008) found that 84.5 percent of the
1600 stories he analyzed in 10 online news sites in the United States, the United Kingdom,
Germany, France and Russia were strictly text-based. In Scandinavia, Engebretsen (2006)
found that online newspapers used a bit more multimedia, but still not more than found in
previous studies in the United States. Dimitrova and Neznanski’s (2006) study of the
coverage of the Iraq war in 2003 in 17 online newspapers from the United States and
elsewhere showed no increase in the use of video and audio in US newspapers compared
to Schultz’s study published seven years earlier. Furthermore, they found minimal
difference between the international and the US online newspapers (slightly more use
of multimedia in the US online newspapers). However, Greer and Mensing (2006) found a
significant increase in multimedia use during the same period (1997
2003) in their
longitudinal study of online newspapers in the United States.
 320 STEEN STEENSEN

Interviews and Surveys

Studies relying on interviews and surveys with online journalists and editors reveal
some of the possible reasons for the lack of multimedia in online journalism found in the
content analysis studies. According to Jackson and Paul (1998) (the United States) and
Neuberger et al. (1998) (Germany) online journalists and editors had a positive attitude
towards utilizing multimedia technology, but problems related to lack of staff, inadequate
transmission capacity and other technical issues obstructed the materialization of
multimedia content. Later studies indicate that online journalists and editors downscale
the value of multimedia content: Quandt et al. (2006) found that multimedia was
considered to be the least important feature of Web technology for online journalism.
O’Sullivan (2005) found similar results in his qualitative interviews with Irish online
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

journalists. Thurman and Lupton interviewed 10 senior editors and managers affiliated
with British online news providers and found that the general sentiment was that ‘‘text
was still core’’ (2008, p. 15). However, Krumsvik, in interviews with CNN and NRK
(Norwegian public broadcaster) executives, found a much more positive attitude towards
multimedia than towards interactivity and hypertext (2009, p. 145). And a recent case
study of multimedia content on the BBC online concludes that video content has
increased tremendously (Thorsen, 2010).

Reception Studies
There are few studies investigating users’ attitudes towards multimedia news online.
In an experimental study, Sundar (2000) found that those who read text-only versions of a
story gained more insight into the topic of the story than those who read/viewed
multimedia versions of the same story. Beyers (2005) found that only 26.4 of the Flemish
online newspaper readers in his survey thought the added value of multimedia was an
important reason to read online newspapers.

Multimedia Summarized
To summarize the findings of the research on multimedia in online journalism deriving
from the techno-approach, it seems that multimedia remains the least developed of the
assets offered to journalism by Internet technology. Online journalism is mostly about
producing, distributing and consuming written text in various forms, even though some
studies describe an increase in the use of multimedia, especially in broadcasting stations’
online news sites in recent years. However, it seems that practitioners are struggling to cope
with multimedia, and the users seem to be quite indifferent.

Discussion
The review leaves an impression that online journalism is left behind by the
technological developments in new media. Linear text is preferred over hypertext and
multimedia (hypermedia). Traditional norms of gatekeeping are preferred over participa-
tory journalism and alternative flows of information, albeit interactivity seems to play a
larger role when it comes to how major breaking news events, like crisis events, are
researched and covered. Journalists and editors seem, at least to some extent, eager to
embrace change brought forward by new technology, while users do not seem to care.
 ONLINE JOURNALISM 321

All in all, it seems that technology may not be the main driving force of developments
in online journalism. The question is therefore: how can research focused on online
journalism better grasp why online journalism develops as it does?
Some researchers suggest that ethnography and a closer look at the practices and
routines of online news production is the answer. Brannon (1999), Boczkowski (2004),
Domingo (2006), Küng (2008), Steensen (2009a) and the case studies presented in
Paterson and Domingo (2008) all utilize the methodology of ethnography, even though
their approaches to a large extent are still dominated by the technological discourse.
Some other studies also utilize ethnographic methodology, but from a broader, albeit still
technology-oriented, approach that aims at finding out how convergence of newsrooms
affect the production of journalism (Dupagne and Garrison, 2006; Erdal, 2009; Klinenberg,
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

2005; Lawson-Border, 2006).

These studies provide valuable insights into the complexity of online journalism
production and put forward findings that shed light on why technology is not utilized to
the degree that has been previously postulated. Steensen (2009a), building on Boczkowski
(2004), for instance found that newsroom autonomy, newsroom work culture, the role of
management, the relevance of new technology and innovative individuals are vital factors
as to how innovative online newsrooms are; and Domingo (2006) found that striving for
immediacy hindered the use of other assets of new technology in the newsrooms he
researched.
Notwithstanding the significant contributions of these studies, there are still many
shortcomings of the research on online journalism. I will conclude this paper with six
suggestions for further research.
First, studies of online journalism could benefit from a broader contextualization.
Mitchelstein and Boczkowski (2009) argue that the research on online journalism lacks
historical dimensions. Relating online journalism to developments in journalism prior to
the Internet boom could therefore be a suggestion. Viewing online journalism in relation
to media theory and how media and media products transform over time could be
another. Mitchelstein and Boczkowski also identify a need for more cross-national studies,
and for online journalism researchers to look beyond the newsroom and the news industry
and take into account structural factors such as the labor market and comparable
processes in other industries in order to better understand ‘‘who gets to produce online
news, how that production takes place, and what stories result from these dynamics’’
(2009, 576). It should, however, be noted that the works of Deuze (2007) and Marjoribanks
(2000, 2003) and their joint editing of a special issue of the journal Journalism2 to some
extent address these shortcomings.
Second, the research on online journalism is flooded by a range of theoretical
concepts that are either interchangeable or are interpreted differently by different
researchers. Concepts like interactivity, hypertext and multimedia are understood in
different ways, and other concepts, like genre and innovation are generally used without
any theoretical discussion on what they represent and how they might inform the research
on online journalism. A stronger emphasis on conceptualization is therefore needed.
Third, most of the research in the field of online journalism is limited to a focus on the
presentation and to some degree the production and reception of hard/breaking news and
the rhetoric of online news sites’ front pages. The development of other genres therefore
seems to have been downplayed in the research, even though some studies have been
conducted on online feature journalism (Boczkowski 2009; Steensen 2009b, 2009c).
 322 STEEN STEENSEN

Furthermore, sections and stories that are reached by other means than via links from the
front page (e.g. traffic to stories and sections generated from search engines) seem to be
under-represented in the research. A stronger emphasis on the diversification of online
journalism is therefore needed.
Fourth, research on online journalism could benefit from a greater recognition of
and reflection on the text as a research unit. Although most research on online journalism
deals with text in one way or another, there is a striking neglect of theoretical and
methodological reflections on what texts are, how they facilitate communication, how
they relate to media, and how they connect media with society. Genre theory and
discourse analysis could for instance be valuable tools to establish research approaches
that aim at investigating online journalism as communication. Lüders et al. (2010), for
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

instance, show how the concept of genre provides vital insights into the emergence of
new media like the personal weblog.
Fifth, although some of the research mentioned above makes longitudinal claims,
the empirical material is seldom of longitudinal character. This seems to be a flaw
considering the swift development of online journalism and the lack of common
theoretical and methodological approaches, which makes comparisons between findings
difficult.
Sixth, research about online journalism suffers from a methodological deficiency. The
research is dominated by content analysis, surveys and interviews. Qualitative approaches
are rarely utilized, even though ethnographic news production studies seem to gain
popularity. However, given the limited cases that are possible to investigate with such
a methodology, more ethnographic research is need. Furthermore, content analysis should
to a greater extent be combined with qualitative textual analysis of online journalism
texts*all in order to uncover the complexity of online journalism.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Sally J. McMillan and the Journal of Interactive Advertising for permission to use
the table in Figure 1.

NOTES
1. ‘‘Videotex (or ‘‘interactive videotex’’) was one of the earliest implementations of an ‘end-
user information system’. From the late 1970s to mid-1980s, it was used to deliver
information (usually pages of text) to a user in computer-like format, typically to be
displayed on a television’’ (Wikipedia on Videotex, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotex,
accessed 27 November 2009).
2. Journalism, Vol. 10, No. 5, published October 2009, special issue on ‘‘Newswork’’, edited
by Mark Deuze and Tim Marjoribanks.

REFERENCES
AARSETH, ESPEN (1997) Cybertext: perspectives on ergodic literature, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
ALLAN, STUART and THORSEN, EINAR (Eds) (2009) Citizen Journalism, New York: Peter Lang.
 ONLINE JOURNALISM 323

BERGSTRÖM, ANNIKA (2008) ‘‘The Reluctant Audience: online participation in the Swedish
journalistic context’’, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 5(2), pp. 60
80.
BEYERS, HANS (2004) ‘‘Interactivity and Online Newspapers: a case study on discussion boards’’,
Convergence 10(4), pp. 11
20.
BEYERS, HANS (2005) ‘‘Tomorrow’s Newsp@pers: online or still made out of paper? A study on
perceptions, opinions and attitudes towards online newspapers’’, in: Pere Masip and Rom
Josep (Eds), Digital Utopia in the Media: from discourses to facts. A balance, (conference
proceedings), Barcelona: University of Barcelona Press, pp. 347
62.
BOCZKOWSKI, PABLO J. (2004) Digitizing the News: innovation in online newspapers, Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
BOCZKOWSKI, PABLO J. (2009) ‘‘Rethinking Hard and Soft News Production: from common ground
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

to divergent paths’’, Journal of Communication 59(1), pp. 98
116.

BRANNON, JUDY L. (1999) ‘‘Maximizing the Medium: assessing impediments to performing
multimedia journalism at three news web sites’’, PhD dissertation, University of Maryland,
http://home.comcast.net/jodybrannon/diss/abstract.html, accessed 3 March 2010.
BROMLEY, MICHAEL (1997) ‘‘The End of Journalism? Changes in workplace practices in the press
and broadcasting in the 1990s’’, in: Michael Bromley and Tom O’Mally (Eds), A journalism
reader, London: Routledge, pp. 330
50.
CHUNG, DEBORAH S. (2007) ‘‘Profits and Perils: online news producers’ perceptions of interactivity
and uses of interactive features’’, Convergence 13(1), pp. 43
61.
DAHLGREN, PETER (1996) ‘‘Media Logic in Cyberspace: repositioning journalism and its publics’’,
Javnost/The Public 3(3), pp. 59
72.
DEUZE, MARK (1999) ‘‘Journalism and the Web: an analysis of skills and standards in an online
environment’’, International Communication Gazette 61(5), pp. 373
90.
DEUZE, MARK (2001) ‘‘Online Journalism: modelling the first generation of news media on the
World Wide Web’’, First Monday 6(10), http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/
index.php/fm/article/view/893/802, accessed 10 January 2010.
DEUZE, MARK (2003) ’’The Web and Its Journalisms: considering the consequences of different
types of newsmedia online’’, New Media & Society 5(2), pp. 203
30.
DEUZE, MARK (2004) ‘‘What Is Multimedia Journalism?’’, Journalism Studies 5(2), pp. 139
52.
DEUZE, MARK (2007) Media Work, Cambridge: Polity.
DEUZE, MARK and PAULUSSEN, STEVE (2002) ‘‘Online Journalism in the Low Countries: basic,
occupational and professional characteristics of online journalists in Flanders and the
Netherlands’’, European Journal of Communication 17(2), pp. 237
45.
DIBEAN, WENDY and GARRISON, BRUCE (2001) ‘‘How Six Online Newspapers Use Web Technologies’’,
Newspaper Research Journal 22(2), pp. 79
94.
DIMITROVA, DANIELA V. and NEZNANSKI, MATT (2006) ‘‘Online Journalism and the War in Cyberspace:
a comparison between US and international newspapers’’, Journal of Computer-mediated
Communication 12(1) http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue1/dimitrova.html, accessed
3 February 2010.
DOMINGO, DAVID (2006) ‘‘Inventing Online Journalism: development of the Internet as a news
medium in four Catalan newsrooms’’, PhD dissertation, Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona, http://www.tesisenxarxa.net/TESIS_UAB/AVAILABLE/TDX-1219106-153347//
dd1de1.pdf, accessed 15 January 2010.
DOMINGO, DAVID, QUANDT, THORSTEN, HEINONEN, ARI, PAULUSSEN, STEVE, SINGER, JANE B. and VUJNOVIC,
MARINA (2008) ‘‘Participatory Journalism Practices in the Media and Beyond’’, Journalism
Practice 2(3), pp. 326
42.
 324 STEEN STEENSEN

DUPAGNE, MICHEL and GARRISON, BRUCE (2006) ‘‘The Meaning and Influence of Convergence: a
qualitative case study of newsroom work at the Tampa News Center’’, Journalism Studies
7(2), pp. 237
55.
ENGEBRETSEN, MARTIN (2000) ‘‘Hypernews and Coherence’’, Journal of Digital Information 1(7),
http://journals.tdl.org/jodi/rt/printerFriendly/26/27, accessed 10 January 2010.
ENGEBRETSEN, MARTIN (2001) Nyheten som hypertekst: tekstuelle aspekter ved møtet mellom en
gammel sjanger og ny teknologi, Kristiansand: IJ-forlaget.
ENGEBRETSEN, MARTIN (2006) ‘‘Shallow and Static or Deep and Dynamic? Studying the state of
online journalism in Scandinavia’’, Nordicom Review 27(1), pp. 3
16.
ERDAL, IVAR J. (2009) ‘‘Cross-media News Journalism. Institutional, professional and textual
strategies and practices in multi-platform news production’’, PhD dissertation, University
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

of Oslo.
EVELAND, WILLIAM P., MARTON, KRISZTINA and SEO, MIHYE (2004) ‘‘Moving Beyond ‘Just the Facts’: the
influence of online news on the content and structure of public affairs knowledge’’,
Communication Research 31(1), pp. 82
108.
FORTUNATI, LEOPOLDIONA, RAYCHEVA, LILIA, HARRO-LOIT, HALLIKI and O’SULLIVAN, JOHN (2005) ‘‘Online
News Interactivity in four European Countries: a pre-political dimension. Comparing
practices in Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland and Italy,’’ in: Peter Masip and Josep Rom (Eds),
Digital Utopia in the Media: from discourses to facts. A balance, Barcelona: Blanquerna
Tecnologia I Serveis, pp. 417
30.
FREDIN, ERIC S. (1997) ‘‘Rethinking the News Story for the Internet: hyperstory prototypes
and a model of the user’’, Journalism and Mass Communication Monographs 163,
pp. 1
47.
GREER, JENNIFER D. and MENSING, DONICA (2006) ‘‘The Evolution of Online Newspapers: a
longitudinal content analysis, 1997
2003,’’ in: Xigen Li (Ed.), Internet Newspapers: the
making of a mainstream medium, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 13
32.
GUNTER, BARRIE (2003) News and the Net, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
HARDT, HANNO (1996) ‘‘The End of Journalism: media and newswork in the United States’’,
Javnost/The Public 3(3), pp. 21
41.
HARPER, CHRISTOPHER (1998) And That’s the Way It Will Be: news and information in a digital world,
New York: New York University Press.
HEINONEN, ARI (1999) ‘‘Journalism in the Age of the Net. Changing society, changing profession’’,
PhD dissertation, University of Tampere.
HERMIDA, ALFRED and THURMAN, NEIL (2008) ‘‘A Clash of Cultures: the integration of user-generated
content within professional journalistic frameworks at British newspaper websites’’,
Journalism Practice 2(3), pp. 343
56.
HUESCA, ROBERT (2000) ‘‘Reinventing Journalism Curricula for the Electronic Environment’’,
Journalism and Mass Communication Educator 55(2), pp. 4
15.
HUJANEN, JAANA and PIETIKÄINEN, SARI (2004) ‘‘Interactive Uses of Journalism: crossing between
technological potential and young people’s news-using practices’’, New Media & Society
6(3), pp. 383
401.
JACKSON, MICHELE and PAUL, NORA (1998) ‘‘Newspaper Publishing and the World Wide Web’’,
Poynter Institute for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, FL, http://www.poynter.org/content/
content_view.asp?id5687, accessed 21 November 2009.
JANKOWSKI, NICHOLAS W. and VAN SELM, MARTINE (2000) ‘‘Traditional News Media Online: an
examination of added values’’, Communications 25(1), pp. 85
102.
JENSEN, JENS F. (1998) ‘‘Interactivity’’, Nordicom Review 19(2), pp. 185
204.
 ONLINE JOURNALISM 325

KAWAMOTO, KEVIN (Ed.) (2003) Digital Journalism: emerging media and the changing horizons of
journalism, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
KENNY, KEITH, GORELIK, ALEXANDER and MWANGI, SAM (2000) ‘‘Interactive Features of Online
Newspapers’’, First Monday 5(1
3), http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.
php/fm/article/viewArticle/720/, accessed 20 December 2009.
KLINENBERG, ERIC (2005) ‘‘Convergence: news production in a digital age’’, The Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science 597(1), pp. 48
64.
KRUMSVIK, ARNE H. (2009) ‘‘The Online News Factory: a multi-lens investigation of the strategy, structure,
and process of online news production at CNN and NRK’’, PhD dissertation, University of Oslo.
KÜNG, LUCY (2008) When Innovation Fails to Disrupt. A multi-lens investigation of successful
incumbment response to technological discontinuity: the launch of BBC News Online,
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

Jönköping: Media Management and Transformation Center, Jönköping International

Business School.
LASICA, JOSEPH D. (2002) ‘‘The Promise of the Daily Me’’, Online Journalism Review, 2 April, http://
www.ojr.org/ojr/lasica/1017779142.php, accessed 15 December 2009.
LAWSON-BORDER, GRACIE (2006) Media Organizations and Convergence: case studies of media
convergence pioneers, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
LI, XIGEN and YE, XIANYI (2006) ‘‘Internet Newspapers Public Forum and User Involvement’’, in:
Xigen Li (Ed.), Internet Newspapers: the making of a mainstream medium, Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 243
59.
LÜDERS, MARIKA, PRØITZ, LIN and RASMUSSEN, TERJE (2010) ‘‘Emerging Personal Media Genres’’, New
Media & Society, (online edition published 4 May).
MARJORIBANKS, TIMOTHY (2000) News Corporation, Technology and the Workplace: global strategies,
local change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MARJORIBANKS, TIMOTHY (2003) ‘‘Strategising Technological Innovation: the case of news
corporation’’, in: Simon Cottle (Ed.), Media Organization and Production, London: Sage
Publications, pp. 59
76.
MCMILLAN, SALLY J. (2002) ‘‘Exploring Models of Interactivity from Multiple Research Traditions:
users, documents, and systems’’, in: Leah A. Lievrouw and Sonia A. Livingston (Eds),
Handbook of New Media, London: Sage, pp. 162
82.
MCMILLAN, SALLY J. (2005) ‘‘The Researchers and the Concept: moving beyond a blind
examination of interactivity’’, Journal of Interactive Advertising 5(2), http://jiad.org/
article58, accessed 14 January 2010.
METYKOVA, MONICA (2008) ‘‘Drifting Apart? European journalists and their audiences’’, Westmin-
ster Papers in Communication and Culture 5(2), pp. 42
59.
MITCHELSTEIN, EUGENIA and BOCZKOWSKI, PABLO J. (2009) ‘‘Between Tradition and Change: a review
of recent research on online news production’’, Journalism 10(5), pp. 562
86.
MOSCO, VINCENT (2004) The Digital Sublime: myth, power, and cyberspace, Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
NEGROPONTE, NICHOLAS (1995) Being Digital, London: Hodder & Stoughton.
NELSON, THEODOR H. (1965) ‘‘Complex Information Processing: a file structure for the complex, the
changing and the indeterminate’’, in: Lewis Winner (Ed.), Proceedings of the 20th ACM
Annual Conference, New York: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 84
100.
NEUBERGER, CHRISTOPH, TONNEMACHER, JAN, BIEBL, MATTHIAS and DUCK, ANDRÉ (1998) ‘‘Online*the
future of newspapers? Germany’s dailies on the World Wide Web’’, Journal of Computer-
mediated Communication 4(1), http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol4/issue1/neuberger.html,
accessed 3 November 2010.
 326 STEEN STEENSEN

O’SULLIVAN, JOHN (2005) ‘‘Delivering Ireland: journalism’s search for a role online’’, Gazette 67(1),
pp. 45
68.
O’SULLIVAN, JOHN and HEINONEN, ARI (2008) ‘‘Old Values, New Media’’, Journalism Practice 2(3),
pp. 357
71.
OBLAK, TANJA (2005) ‘‘The Lack of Interactivity and Hypertextuality in Online Media’’, Gazette
67(1), pp. 87
106.
PATERSON, CHRIS and DOMINGO, DAVID (Eds) (2008) Making Online News. The ethnography of new
media production, New York: Peter Lang.
PAULUSSEN, STEVE (2004) ‘‘Online News Production in Flanders: how Flemish online journalists
perceive and explore the Internet’s potential’’, Journal of Computer-mediated
Communication 9(4), http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol9/issue4/paulussen.html, accessed
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

10 December 2009.
PAVLIK, JOHN V. (2001) Journalism and New Media, New York: Columbia University Press.
PITTS, MARY J. (2003) ‘‘Television Web Sites and Changes in the Nature of Storytelling’’, SIMILE:
Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education 3(3), pp. 1
8.
QUANDT, THORSTEN (2008) ‘‘(No) News on the World Wide Web?’’, Journalism Studies 9(5), pp. 717

38.
QUANDT, THORSTEN, LÖFFELHOLZ, MARTIN, WEAVER, DAVID, HANITZSCHE, THOMAS and ALTMEPPEN, KLAUS-
DIETER (2006) ‘‘American and German Online Journalists at the Beginning of the 21st
Century’’, Journalism Studies 7(2), pp. 171
86.
QUINN, GARY and TRENCH, BRIAN (2002) Online News Media and Their Audiences, MUDIA Report,
Heerlen: European Center for Digital Communication.
RATHMANN, TIM A. (2002) ‘‘Supplement or Substitution? The relationship between reading a local
print newspaper and the use of its online version’’, Communications 27(4), pp. 485
98.
RILEY, PATRICIA, KEOUGH, COLLEEN M., CHRISTIANSEN, THORA, MEILICH, OFER and PIERSON, JILLIAN (1998)
‘‘Community or Colony: the case of online newspapers and the Web’’, Journal of
Computer-mediated Communication 4(1), http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol4/issue1/keough.html,
accessed 2 March 2010.
ROBINSON, SUSAN (2006) ‘‘The Mission of the J-blog: recapturing journalistic authority online’’,
Journalism 7(1), pp. 65
83.
SALAVERRIA, RAMON (2005) ‘‘An Immature Medium: strengths and weaknesses of online
newspapers on September 11’’, Gazette 67(1), pp. 69
86.
SCHULTZ, TANJEV (1999) ‘‘Interactive Options in Online Journalism: a content analysis of 100 U.S.
newspapers’’, Journal of Computer-mediated Communication 5(1), http://jcmc.indiana.
edu/vol5/issue1/schultz.html, accessed 5 January 2010.
SCHULTZ, TANJEV (2000) ‘‘Mass Media and the Concept of Interactivity: an exploratory study of
online forums and reader email’’, Media Culture & Society 22(2), pp. 205
21.
SHIPLEY, CHRIS and FISH, MATT (1996) How the World Wide Web Works, Emeryville, CA: Macmillan
Computer Publishing.
SINGER, JANE B. (1997) ‘‘Changes and Consistencies: newspaper journalists contemplate online
future’’, Newspaper Research Journal 18(1/2), pp. 2
18.
SINGER, JANE B. (2005) ‘‘The Political J-blogger: ‘normalizing’ a new media form to fit old norms
and practices’’, Journalism 6(2), pp. 173
98.
SPYRIDOU, PASCHALIA-LIA and VEGLIS, ANDREAS (2008) ‘‘Exploring Structural Interactivity in Online
Newspapers: a look at the Greek web landscape’’, First Monday 13(5), http://
firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2164/1960, accessed
5 March 2010.
 ONLINE JOURNALISM 327

STEENSEN, STEEN (2009a) ‘‘What’s Stopping Them? Towards a grounded theory of innovation in
online newspaper’’, Journalism Studies 10(6), pp. 821
36.
STEENSEN, STEEN (2009b) ‘‘The Shaping of an Online Feature Journalist’’, Journalism
10(5), pp. 702
18.
STEENSEN, STEEN (2009c) ‘‘Online Feature Journalism: a clash of discourses’’, Journalism Practice
3(1), pp. 13
29.
SUNDAR, S. SHYAM (2000) ‘‘Multimedia Effects on Processing and Perception of Online News:
a study of picture, audio, and video downloads’’, Journalism & Mass Communication
Quarterly 77(3), pp. 480
99.
SUNDAR, S. SHYAM (2009) ‘‘Online Journalism: the psychology of mass communication on the
Web’’, in: Louis Leung, Anthony Y. H. Fung and Paul S. N. Lee (Eds), Embedding into Our
Downloaded by [faculties of the University of Ljubljana] at 05:58 16 June 2015

Lives: new opportunities and challenges of the Internet, Sha Tin, Hong Kong: The Chinese
University Press, pp. 125
44.
THORSEN, EINAR (2010) ‘‘BBC News Online, the iPlayer and Embedded Video: redefining forms and
practices of (online) journalism’’, paper presented to the MeCCSA 2010 Conference,
London School of Economics, London, January.
THURMAN, NEIL (2008) ‘‘Forums for Citizen Journalists? Adoption of user generated content
initiatives by online news media’’, New Media & Society 10(1), pp. 139
57.
THURMAN, NEIL and LUPTON, BEN (2008) ‘‘Convergence Calls: multimedia storytelling at British
news websites’’, paper presented to the 9th International Symposium on Online
Journalism, University of Texas, Austin, April.
TREMAYNE, MARK (2006) ‘‘Applying Network Theory to the Use of External Links on News Web
Sites’’, in: Xigen Li (Ed.), Internet Newspapers: the making of a mainstream medium,
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 49
64.
TSAY, MING-YUEH (2009) ‘‘Citation Analysis of Ted Nelson’s Works and His Influence on Hypertext
Concept’’, Scientometrics 79(3), pp. 451
72.
WALL, MELISSA (2005) ‘‘Blogs of War’: weblogs as news’’, Journalism 6(2), pp. 153
72.
WOOD, ANDREW F. and SMITH, MATTHEW J. (2005) Online Communication: linking technology, identity,
and culture, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
VAN DER WURFF, RICHARD and LAUF, EDMUND (Eds) (2005) Print and Online Newspapers in Europe: a
comparative analysis in 16 countries, Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis.
ZAMITH, FERNANDO (2008) ‘‘A Methodological Proposal to Analyze the News Websites Use of the
Potentialities of the Internet’’, paper presented to the 9th International Symposium on
Online Journalism, University of Texas, Austin, April.

Steen Steensen, Faculty of Journalism, Library and Information Science, Oslo University
College, P.B. 4, St. Olavs Plass, 0130 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: steen.steensen@jbi.hio.no